undrcooked, overcooked Gingerbread me

Last night I attempted my first ever batch of gingerbread.  I need 3 slices for the show on Saturday.  I have to say I am really struggling with this.  And whilst I am loath to blame my oven I can not get it to cook correctly.

Equipment: 1 x  8 inch square deep cake tin
Greasproof paper
Tin foil

Gingerbread.

6 oz black treacle
6 oz golden syrup
6 oz dark brown sugar
6 oz butter
12 oz plain flour
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1/4 pint milk
1 egg, beaten
4 pices stemm ginger, finely chopped

Grease the cake tin and line with greaseprrof paper (no need to flour it).  Preheat oven to 170C

Put the treacle, syrup, sugar and butter in a nonstick saucepan and slowly heat through until all the butter and sugar have melted, stirring occasionally.  then remove from heat.

In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, bicarb, ground ginger and spice.  make a well in the centre.

Blend the milk in the sugar mix and test the mixture.  it should be no more than tepid.  If it is hotter leave to cool down some more.

Put the egg and chopped stem ginger into the bowl with the flour and add the sur mixture. combine well with an electric hand mixer.  The batter should look shiny and smooth with tiny tiny lumps of ginger.

Pour the mixture into the lined cake tine and bake for 60 - 90 minutes.  Test after 60 minutes and the gingerbread is ready when a cocktail stick or tester come out clean.

By this stage your house will be smelling amazing.  The smell of fresh gingerbread is almost as good as fresh bread.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a minimum of 1 hour before removing from the tin.  Once fully cool cut place onto long strip of greaseproof paper and cut into slices.  Wrap in the paper and then wrap in the tin foil and leave for a minimum of 48hrs to mature and become the moist chewy ginger bread we all know and love.

 My first attempt I left in the oven for exactly 90 minutes as directed by the recipe and ............ well you can see the results here:

Definitely burnt round the edges.


My second attempt tonight, I cooked for 60 minutes and used a cake tester on it, which came out clean.  But as you can see the edges are just starting to become overcooked and yet it has sunk in the middle.

However, as you can see from the title picture the middle slices look good enough to eat, even though it is clearly more dense on the bottom half.  Once it has finished cooling I'll wrap it up and it will remain wrapped until Saturday morning when I will take 3 of the middle pieces to the show.

If anyone can offer any tips a to how I can get the stupid thing to cook evenly I'd be very grateful.

I have a new pie maker

So.... I bought myself a depp fill pie maker.  I love pies and rather than cooking big ones with all the temptation that entails, with not eating the whole thing in one sitting, I thought making individual pies would end up being better - portion control you know.

I decided to start with a simple classic British pie.  After looking at some other recipes I estimated the amounts that would be required to make 4 separate pies.

Individual Cheese & potato pies

Makes 4 pies

Equipment: Deep fill pie maker

Tips:  Put pastry into pie maker when the pie maker is cold.  You will need to cook the pies for a couple of minutes longer, but that is better than burning your fingers by putting pastry in when it is hot.

1 lb shortcrust pastry

1 1/1 lb potatoes

1 red onion

1 oz butter

5 oz mature cheddar cheese

2 tsp fresh chives - chopped

2 tsp English mustard powder

Salt & pepper

1 egg – beaten

Directions:

Peel the potatoes and put them on to boil.   Peel and slice the onions and fry them in a little olive oil until translucent.   

Remove onions from heat, cover to keep warm and put to one side.  Once the potatoes are boiled drain the water out of the pan.  Using a fork gently crush the potatoes – you want the potatoes to be half mash half lumps – and add the butter and mix. Mix the cheese, onion, milk, mustard powder, chives and potatoes together adding a dash of salt & pepper to taste.

Roll out the pastry and cut the tops and bottoms for the pies.  Line the pie maker with the bottoms and fill with mixture.  Put on the lids, brush with beaten egg, close the machine and cook for approximately 12 minutes.

You definitely need to make sure filling forms a dome to ensure the lid is cooked.  As you can see from the picture the 2nd batch I put more filling in the the top cooked quite well.

Too early for Christmas? (Fruit liqueur and Christmas cake)

Today being the first of September I have started my cooking for Christmas. This is the first time in a few years I have been able to make my own Christmas cake since I am unable to stir the mix due to my arthritus.  As James is moving to live here in less than a forthnight I'll have someone to do the stirring of the cake mix for me.

I like to soak the fruit for the Christmas cake for 2 1/2 months before baking.  I have weighed out the fruit (just under 2lb of raisins, peel and sultanas) and put them into a rumtopf.  I then threw in 70cl of brandy.I didn't drink any - honest.

I stir the fruit/brandy on a daily basis for a fortnight and then just once per week until mid November.  After the first fortnight I'll be adding another 35cl of brandy.  It is a lot of brandy I know, but I make good use of it.  When it comes time to bake the cake I drain the brandy through a sieve into a large container.  I then set up a jelly bag and pour the liquid through that.  This step means that all the little bits have been removed from the liquid.  I then pour the liquid into a decorative bottle and store it until December.

The plain brandy turns into a fairly potent and fruity liqueur. The perfect after dinner tipple for the winter months.

I'll do a full post just for the fruit liqueur and show you the results in a couple of months.